Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a chemical feeder that comprises a housing having a housing chamber, a sieve plate within the housing chamber that comprises a plurality of sieve plate apertures, and a cartridge that resides on an upper surface of the sieve plate, the cartridge having a tubular member and a plurality of partitions extending from an outer surface of the tubular member toward an inner wall of the housing to define a plurality of pockets which are configured to contain a solid chemical material that is exposed to a feed liquid that flows upwardly through at least some of the sieve plate apertures.
Description of the Related Art
Chemical feeders can be used to produce various mixtures, such as aqueous solutions of water treating agents, that can be used for the disinfection of effluent from sewage treatment plants, for the chlorination of water in swimming pools and hot tubs, and for the delivery of other water soluble chemicals to aqueous streams and water systems. In some instances, a solid treatment chemical is placed within the chemical feeder where it comes into contact with a liquid, such as water, to form a treated liquid composition, such as a treated aqueous composition.
It is desirable that the chemical feeder produce treated liquid compositions that contain a controllable and reproducible level of treatment chemical therein. Variability in the rate at which a solid treatment chemical dissolves in the liquid that is introduced into the chemical feeder can result in an undesirable variation in the concentration of treatment chemical in the treated liquid that is removed from the chemical feeder during operation thereof. In the case of sanitizing treatment chemicals, for example, such variability in the concentration of the sanitizing chemical(s) can result in reduced sanitizing properties, when the concentration drops below a minimum threshold, or the concentration can rise above a maximum desired threshold. In some situations, the solid treatment chemical charged to a chemical feeder is exposed to excess liquid, which results in the solid treatment chemical dissolving too quickly, and/or the formation of a treated liquid having an undesirably high level of the treatment chemical. The solid treatment chemical dissolving too quickly can result in the need to frequently recharge the chemical feeder with new or replacement solid treatment chemical.
It would be desirable to develop new chemical feeders that can be used to produce treated liquid compositions from solid treatment chemicals. It would be further desirable that such newly developed chemical feeders provide a desirable rate at which the solid treatment chemical dissolves, and a controllable, reliable, and reproducible level of treatment chemical in the treated liquid compositions that are removed from the chemical feeder.